We have been eating poorly and we know it. We have gained weight and realize we must change our eating habits. What better place to start, we surmise, than the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid. After all, it is the official diet guidelines for Americans to follow if they want to eat right and maintain good health.
Since the Pyramid includes animal-source foods that include meat, dairy, and eggs, these products must be necessary for our health. Then again 100 million Americans have a chronic disease with conservatively two out of every three attributable to diet. It seems to be guiding us alright—guiding us straight toward ill health.
The pyramid started with good intentions in 1862 to educate the public on agricultural matters. It actually emphasized fruits and vegetables for almost 100 years until some not-so-objective commercial interests leveraged its influence and the Pyramid became a different animal, with pun intended. Maybe at that juncture the pyramid should have been replaced with a different shape, like a wedge of Swiss cheese—smelly with a lot of holes in it.